The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-07-23
EXIT, THE COMMITTEE.

EXIT, THE COMMITTEE
The States Attorney, on Saturday last
Informed the investigating committee that
he would have no further use for their ser.
vices, at least until fail. Therefore, accord.
Ing 70 the stage directions: "ErH, the
! Committee" In other words, as the Times
| suggests, they have ilirted with the hotel
girls, they have tempered with the nectar
| from Milwaukee, consumed between 81 600
and 81 900 in pay, formed their little ring,
they have made themselves immortal in
their own organ and had good time gen.
orally; now they can discuss the butter
milk of their farms, teach their wives how
10 serve their dinners in courses, wrestle
with the seductive harvester and listen to
the music of the dulCet threshing machine.
Ii is about time a halt should be called !;
for the people of the county had gotten
tired of them, as was shown by the temper
of the Bard at its last session. II did not
appear that they We're earning the money
spent by them, while the absence of any
report of their work gave no promise of an
end to their "labOrs."
1t has yet 10 be shown that their work
has amounted to anything, or whether they
have done more than 10 start an investiga-
ton which, when In the courts, will drag its
slow length along until il has all been gone
over again by the judicial tribunal which
shall decide how much IS truth In their
findings and how pure buncombe, how
much malice and how much blundering.
The committee has taken especial pains,
as to one thing, and taken great deal of
the time, for which the county has paid
them to work on county books, to dissent
nate it, and that is that those who do not
always agree with them are defenders of
boOdlera,
The FREE TRADER is quite willing toI
confess it does not have q great deal of
respect for that committee. This is not the
result of an objection to the investigation
The FREE TRADER never objected TO that
course, which is one the people have a
right at any time to demand when they de-
sire II.
But the FREE TRADER did object 70 the
in which this committee conducted
hat Snl ynS VI hila NJ chair yrnrk frhnnnl
the uncomfortable weakness of
its chairman in tie matter of a cheap no
toriety, the FREE TRADER did expect and
the people had the right to expect that the
would have the dignity, which |
common sense should have taught Their |
would be the proper thing under the cir |
TO keep their own counsel an
go on with their work in business-lik, |
without fear or favor. Instead O |
which, almost their first motion was to St
lect their organ, have their photograph !
engraved, and with one honorable excel |
tom, when they had made few finds" |
hasten 10 have said engravings and flu. |
some biographies of themselves publishe, |
in connection with their unofficial report |
and pose as seven second editions of Gri |
nell, weeks before their report would J Q
given to the Board, the reward for viii, b
unseemly puffery of themselves, forge
ting they were engaged in an investigate n
that brought dishonor and shame to ole |
neighbors and triends,-they attempted t.
pay AT the last session o. the Board by turn.
ing over to their organ an Insignificant jol
If county printing! Because the FREi
TRADER objected to such methods of In.
sestigation and questioned its accurac,
and, much more, the seeming spirit il
which 1t was made), it has been set down
both as a boOdler and as friend of hood
ers by this self-styled good" committee
rs has been also every man who dared Il
express the hope that these findings nigh,
prove erroneous, and that the two old meu
hey are after may 60 down to their graves
with untarnished names. Not content
however, with heaping abuse upon every
nan who differed with them, the commit
zee 1t Is but fair 10 say that the committe,
IS not, TO man, under the thumb of IL
hartman In all things proceeded, after thu
asst township elections, TO form their owl
little ring 10 control the county Board ant
Is business. Its organization they cap
ured, they dictated lis committees, plac-
ny themselves in all the honorary and re- c
'ponsible places and rewarded their /